Archive for September, 2013

I bet you didn’t know, a collector of refrigerator magnets is called a memomagnetist. That’s OK, I didn’t know it either! It is derived from the words memoriale (Latin for memory) and magnetis (Greek for magnetic).

There are names for other collectors, too: philatelist (stamps), numismatist (currency), and lepidopterist (butterflies and moths). But what is the name for all these names; what is the collective term called? For instance a demonym is the name given to people who live in a certain place or locale, i.e. Philadelphian, Welsh, or Hoosier.

I couldn’t find a term for collector names so I coined one. I suggest the term collignym – the collective name for one who collects certain objects. It is derived from the Latin colligere meaning “to gather together” (its past participle is collectus), and from the Greek nym for “name.”